96 GR. Caravan Electrical problem

Hi, this is my first time posting and I hear great things I'm sure there are plenty of posts here about this same problem, but if someone could help me I without me having to scroll all of them, I would apprecuate it.

I have a 96 Gr. Caravan. A while ago (about a month or so), When I was driving, the gauges (speed, temp and gas) were falling rapidly when I pressed the gas pedal. Also the radio was turn on by itself. I fixed itself only after I drove it back home to let my husband look at it. (it didn't do this for him, he thought I was crazy). Now today when I get in after not having drove it all day, I crank it up (cranks fine) and I notice the AC indicator lights were flashing (the AC was in the off position), then the gauges started to fall again. I gave it a hard push on the gas and everything was normal again. I drove it to work (about 15 miles from home; it drove fine), I cut off the engine. I crunk it again to make sure that it was going to crank and I heard a strang click sound when it cranked (it did crank fine, though), the click sounded sort of like when you stick two live wires together and you get pop, crackle sound.

I don't know if this is releated, but the ABS light came on as well, it stayed on even after the gauges corrected themselves. I did have the brakes worked on a couple of weeks ago (new rotors and a new CV axle on the drivers side) before this work the ABS light was on for a long time, after the work it went out and today it comes back on.

Sorry the post is so long, but thanks for reading it and hopefully someone out there can help me.

Start with making sure the battery connections are squeaky clean and connections are tight as a... A load test on the battery would be my next move. Beyond that it sounds like a loose or corroded connection maybe at the PDC or BCM. Next time the van enters the Twilight Zone, smack the dash above the instrument group. If it fixes something you may have the cracked solder joint on the connector to the instrument cluster syndrome. Very common on 3rd generation (96-00) vans.

I would bet on the poor solder joint. I have seen this problem more than once and it will probably get worse and could leave you stranded. I would just pull the dash and re-solder all the connections at the wiring plug-in, chances are it will need it done anyway. Those vans are notorious for that particular problem. Please let us know what fixed the problem. Hope this helped.




67' Chevelle, 85' MR2, 89' Grand Am, 97' Explorer, 76' Ford Flatbed for dragging stuff home when it breaks.